Stephen De La Vega

Angels Landing stands 1,488 feet above the valley floor at Zion National Park in Utah, United States. It is perched behind me in the photo. I stood on Scout Lookout , the turnaround point of my hike with my wife and son. There were good reasons we didn’t continue to Angels Landing:   1.     My son was only 10 years old at the time and one misstep could’ve been fatal. 2.     We would’ve had to file within a string of hikers, so the rest of the way would’ve been at the pace of the crowd. 3.     We were exhausted! Whew!   So, Scout Lookout was where we celebrated and looked forward to the remaining, mostly downhill, 1.9 miles. A 3.8-mile round trip doesn’t sound long, but this hike was strenuous. Very strenuous. The trail was 81% paved, but that doesn’t mean the steep elevation gain with an incline of up to 23 ° under nearly continuous sun exposure was easy. The only hike that was more difficult for me in terms of physical e...

  We often see the path we’re standing on, but not always the path around the corner. Sometimes it seems we’re on the wrong path because we don’t see what we hope to see or we’re walking farther than we wanted to walk. We question the decisions we’ve made along the way. We even question the published trail guide sometimes. Can we trust the guide? Of course we can. So, why do we question it? Sometimes we struggle to trust the truth. Sometimes we struggle to trust our Savior even though He is altogether trustworthy?   In our third and final visit with Jesus in this series, we join Him when He appeared to His disciples after He defeated death. Satan and his organized, world system could not keep Jesus and His truth locked away in a tomb . He rose from His grave just as He foretold and promised ( John 2:18-22 , Matthew 16:21 ). He told His disciples many times that He would rise on the third day. On one occasion, as we studied in Resolution 12 , the mother of James and John change...

  The Parthenon. Not the famous one in Greece, but “the world’s only exact-size replica of the original Parthenon in Athens” ( https://www.nashvilleparthenon.com/ ). You can visit it in Nashville, Tennessee. It seems like the one in Athens would’ve been a great place to exchange wisdom. It certainly looks like the perfect venue, but the Parthenon is not known for that. There is a place where wisdom and truth was taught at a temple where similar columns once stood. It’s called the Second Temple, a rebuilding of Solomon’s Temple. It’s also known as Herod’s Temple, and it’s where Jesus taught at times when He was in Jerusalem. There, at the Second Temple, Jesus shared His perfect wisdom with Jews and Gentiles alike, depending on where he was on any given day. He spoke about life as He expressed the truth of God to eager listeners ( Mark 12:41 , Mark 14:49 , John10:23 , Luke 19:47-48 ).   I’m pleased that we have the opportunity to hear from Jesus in a few resolutions begi...